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4 Reasons to Measure Clinical Outcomes for Pain Management

Written by Helen Adamopoulos |
June 15, 2014

Looking to the future, ambulatory surgery centers must find a way to securing patient volume and payment as the healthcare industry undergoes a significant transformation, according to Fred Davis, MD, an assistant clinical professor at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

At the 12th Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Paine Management-Driven ASC Conference in Chicago on June 13, Dr. Davis discussed the importance of measuring clinical outcomes for pain management as a way to thrive in the new healthcare environment. "More and more, it's elemental to our survival to have this type of information," he said. He identified the following four reasons why practitioners should prioritize clinical outcomes measurement.

1. The shift away from fee-for-service reimbursement. The healthcare industry is moving toward value-based reimbursement, which means ASCs will need to demonstrate quality of care, Dr. Davis said. "We're seeing a move toward population health management and disease management," he said. "Those trends are going to result in the transition from fee-for-service to bundled payments."

2. The rise of electronic health records. Although clinicians might become frustrated with the new technology, Dr. Davis says EHRs have the potential to serve as one of the most important transformative tools through data collection. Since attesting to meaningful use is mandatory anyway, "we need to start using our EHR as a decision support tool," he said.

3. Greater emphasis on patient satisfaction and the customer experience. With Medicare beginning to tie reimbursement rates to patient satisfaction scores, ASCs can't neglect customer service. Collecting data can play a role here too, according to Dr. Davis. If data is available in real time, "practice managers can actually do something about problems in service at the time the patient is in the room," he said.

4. The need for referral development. In order to secure and develop referrals, ASCs must measure clinical outcomes to demonstrate their value. "It's important that we have a focus on providing high-quality care," Dr. Davis said.